Africa: Why the Discovery of a Small Continental Fragment in the Indian Ocean Matters

analysis

Far beneath Mauritius' inactive volcanoes lies an astonishing, important piece of the Earth's history: a fragment of ancient continental crust. And no: it's not Atlantis.

This discovery, which my colleagues and I have outlined in a newly published study, is extremely exciting. Discovering new pieces of continent will help geoscientists to understand the details of how continents break apart, and how the pieces can be better reconstructed to their pre-breakup configurations. This could, for example, be used as an important exploration tool for mineral deposits.

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